preface<br >This book is primarily intended to serve students of algebra and trigo-<br >nometry who plan to continue on to calculus. In addition to the<br >standard topics in algebra， trigonometry， and elementary functions，<br >many topics， examples， and exercises have been designed to compare<br >with the kinds of algebra problems students face in calculus courses.<br >A brief look at the first two chapters and the last chapter， for example，<br >will confirm this. On closer examination you ll find a variety of truly<br >calculus-oriented examples and exercises， including:<br > (a) Complex fractions of the type arising from using the difference<br > quotient.<br > (b) Factoring involving negative and fractional exponents. These<br > are the same types that often arise after taking the derivative<br > of a product. Later， the process is extended to obtain a frac-<br > tion in order to see where the expression is zero or undefined.<br > Such a procedure is needed for maximum/minimum calculus<br > problems.<br > (c) Fractions in which the numerator must be rationalized. In<br >